Türkiye’s Health Ministry is finalizing draft regulations that would restrict the visibility of tobacco products in shops and expand smoking bans in public spaces, including parks, gardens, and playgrounds, as part of efforts to reduce tobacco use and limit children’s exposure. According to local reports, cigarettes would no longer be displayed behind cash registers, and the draft also includes updates to indoor smoking laws and measures addressing electronic cigarettes and other newer tobacco products. Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu said the proposal, which also calls for expanded smoking cessation services, will soon be submitted to parliament. Türkiye already enforces broad smoke-free laws, plain packaging, and advertising bans, though more than a quarter of the population still smokes.
Tag: Turkey
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Turkiye Limits Tax Hikes on Tobacco, Fuel, Alcohol
Türkiye will limit Special Consumption Tax (SCT) increases on tobacco products in the first half of 2026, applying a 7.95% hike instead of the usual adjustment tied to producer inflation, which was close to 10%. Under the presidential decree published in the Official Gazette, the per-pack excise tax on cigarettes will rise by ₺1.28 ($0.03) to ₺56.78 ($1.31). The move departs from Türkiye’s standard practice of revising tobacco taxes twice a year in line with the domestic producer price index and is intended to ease consumer price pressures.
Tobacco remains a major source of tax revenue in Türkiye, with more than 19 million smokers spending over $16 billion annually on cigarettes. From January to November 2025, tobacco generated ₺396.4 billion ($11.1 billion) in SCT revenue, accounting for a large share of the ₺1.01 trillion ($23.2 billion) collected from fuel, tobacco, and alcohol combined. The Treasury and Finance Ministry said the moderated tax increase supports the government’s 2026 inflation targets while remaining consistent with revenue projections in the central government budget.
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Türkiye Rolls Out Mobile Clinics in Anti-Tobacco Campaign
Türkiye launched a nationwide campaign against tobacco, sending mobile cessation clinics and roving control teams to all 81 provinces, taking prevention and treatment directly to the public in city centers, villages, campuses, and industrial zones. The Health Ministry said teams will raise awareness about tobacco’s dangers, promote resources such as the 171 Quitline and the “Green Detector” app, and connect smokers ready to quit with doctors in mobile clinics.
Branded “Smoke-Free Türkiye,” the drive is part of the country’s 2024–2028 action plan to curb tobacco use, which remains at 34.8% of people aged 15 and older.
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JTI Turkey to Invest in Torbali
Japan Tobacco International will invest $40 million over the next three years in its Torbali factory in Turkey, reports Merhaba.
“We are constructing a new tobacco processing building, and the installation of two cigarette manufacturing machines has been completed,” said JTI Turkey Engineering Director Barış Tevattepe. “Our solar energy installation plans have also started as part of our sustainability goals.”
Located on 250 acres with 94,000 square meters of covered space, Torbali is the third-largest factory in the JTI network, according to Tevattepe.
According to JTI Turkey Regional Operations Leader Wojciech Odzimek, many innovations within JTI originated in Torbali. “We lead the industry in exports,” he said. “This facility is also a talent pool and center of excellence for JTI. Many individuals trained here have the opportunity to work in JTI’s factories in other countries. We have a team of 2,900 people in Turkey, generating great value for the country and region through production, employment, exports and taxes.”
JTI Turkey Production Director Sarper Ege Ulukaya expects a record production volume at Torbali this year. “We are set to reach 54 billion units, with 28 percent of this being exported,” he said.
“We are also growing in the domestic market. Our factory has improved efficiency through integrated management systems. We started these efforts in 2020 and achieved a 3 percent performance increase, which significantly contributed to our production records. Other JTI facilities come here to observe best practices. We have a young team, making it easy to adapt to innovations.”
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Turkish Smokers Fret About Latest Price Hikes
Photo: lial88 Cigarette prices in Turkiye increased by TRY3 ($0.9) on May 8, sparking lively discussion among smokers on social media, according to Xinhua.
The cheapest cigarette brands registered with the Monopoly Dealers’ Solidarity Association now cost TRY53 per pack, while the most expensive one is priced at TRY75 liras per pack, according to association president Erol Dundar.
“Though a three lira increase per pack might appear to be a small amount, it is not so for smokers,” said Yagmur Sivri, a resident of Istanbul, who smokes one and a half packs of cigarettes a day and spends about TRY2,500 on smoking each month.
“Considering that millions of people in Turkiye live on a minimum wage of 17,002 liras, the latest price hikes put a very large burden on their budgets,” she said.
The price hike aggravates Turkiye’s already rapidly increasing costs of living. The country’s inflation hit 69.8 percent in April.
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Turkiye Tops Smoking League: Report
Photo: lial88 Turkiye leads the world in per-capita cigarette consumption, with smokers lighting up an average of 17.1 cigarettes per day, reports the Hurriyet Daily News, citing an EU Statistics Office Report.
At least one out of every four people in the total population aged 15 years and above smokes, according to the Tobacco Control Plan 2018-2023. This means that about 20 million people in Turkiye are regular smokers.
Other countries with high levels of per-capita cigarette consumption include Greece, with 15.7 cigarettes; Israel (15.5); Japan (15.5) and Austria (15.4), the report said.
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KT&G Provides Earthquake Relief
Photo: Adin KT&G has donated TRY4.5 million ($238,390) to support earthquake victims and post-earthquake relief efforts in Turkey.
KT&G delivered its donation through the Korean Red Cross on Feb. 10 to fund aid supplies and recovery activities in Turkey. The donation was collected in the form of a matching grant named KT&G Sangsang Fund, whereby the company matched the donations made by employees.
KT&G has been reaching out with relief whenever a crisis has occurred in the local community over the past years. During the coronavirus crisis, KT&G secured 4,800 Covid-19 diagnostic kits from South Korea and donated them to hospitals in Istanbul in 2020 when the medical equipment was short in supply due to the pandemic situation. KT&G also provided the relief fund worth TRY700,00 when an earthquake hit Izmir in the same year.
“We hope that this relief effort will be of some help to the people of Turkey, who have maintained a friendly relationship with Korea for a long time,” said Kim Kwan-joong, president of KT&G Turkey, in a statement. We will continue to carry out our activities of social contribution as a member of the Turkish community.”
In 2007, KT&G invested approximately TRY700 million building its first overseas manufacturing plant in Izmir. Built on 145,000 square meters of land in Tire District, the facility exports to Europe and the Middle East.
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Turkiye to Crack Down on Illicit Trade
Photo: Dzmitry Turkiye plans to crack down on illicit tobacco production and consumption, which cost the state an estimated TRY30 billion ($1.61 billion) in lost tax revenue, reports Daily Sabah.
A draft bill set to be discussed at Parliament will bring prison terms of up to five years for people selling tobacco without licenses from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Illicit product is estimated to account for 20 percent of Turkey’s tobacco market. In 2021, some 35 billion cigarettes containing contraband tobacco were sold. This year, consumption is projected to reach about 50 billion.
The majority of illicit trade comprises illegally produced, unlicensed tobacco sales, such as hand-rolled cigarettes, representing around 27 percent of Turkish cigarette consumption. Counterfeit or smuggled cigarettes, by contrast, constitute about 3 percent of the market.
Authorities seized 4.7 million packages of smuggled cigarettes, 273 tons of tobacco products and 329,000 cigars during the first nine months of 2022, preventing a loss of TRY625 million in tobacco taxes, according to police data.
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Turkey Raises Special Consumption Tax on Tobacco
Photo: Rawf8 Turkey has increased the special consumption tax on tobacco by 47.4 percent to TRY14.39 ($1.10) per pack, reports Bianet.
The special consumption tax is based on the domestic producer price index. It is calculated both as a minimum fixed tax and a fixed tax. Each of these has been increased from TRY0.48 to TRY0.7 lira for a pack of cigarettes.
The minimum price of a pack of cigarettes will be TRY22.85.